COVENTRY will be making desperate attempts to get Julian Joachim into their side to provide a much-needed cutting edge after failing to score against nine-man Forest in a goalless draw....

COVENTRY will be making desperate attempts to get Julian Joachim into their side to provide a much-needed cutting edge after failing to score against nine-man Forest in a goalless draw.

Forest defended magnificently after seeing striker Stern John and Mathieu Louis-Jean sent off for double yellow card offences but Coventry could find no way through and left the pitch to a cacophony of boos.

Forest's manager, Paul Hart, described their heroic display as "the proudest point of my career".

Coventry's players were booed from the pitch by their frustrated fans who were clearly upset at their side's inability to score a winning goal.

Joachim, signed from Aston Villa in the summer, was injured in pre-season but with the next match two weeks away because of international call-ups, Coventry will be desperate to get him into the action.

It was not City's day. They pestered the Football Association to check their faxes on Bank Holiday Monday for the Moroccan Youssef Safri's international clearance and then he injured his groin in the pre-match warm-up.

He was named only as a substitute but it was still a bitter blow to Coventry, who last week were denied a work permit for the former Leeds striker, Phil Masinga.

At the final whistle Paul Hart said: "This was the day my young players became men."

Coventry's boss, Gordon Strachan, said: "It is hard to play against nine men because they pulled everybody back and compressed everything into a small space."

Coventry's outstanding player was 19-year-old Jay Bothroyd. Every hint of danger in the first half came from him and he went close with a couple of headers and a rocketing shot which missed the top corner by inches.

But this day belonged to Forest's heroic defence backed up by goalkeeper Darren Ward whose only anxious moment of the second-half was a flying save from #5 million man Lee Hughes.

Forest lost John in the first half when he was shown the yellow card twice in the space of two minutes. The first was a harsh booking for a challenge on Roland Nilsson and the second for charging down a corner kick well inside the 10 metres mark.

Louis-Jean was sent off in the 63rd minute after two bookings for near identical fouls on Keith O'Neil.